June 11: WSJ Downplays Russia-China Gas Deal, Gives US Shale Thumb’s UpAn Op Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by global political expert and author Joseph S. Nye Jr. posits that the long-hyped $400 billion deal signed last month that will send 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to China over the next 30 years won’t have nearly the a “tectonic geopolitical shift” some analysts believed. Says Nye: “The real geopolitical shift is the shale-energy revolution that took off in the past decade… [which] is largely a product of American entrepreneurship in the past decade.” (Read More)

June 11: Will H20 Shortage Scuttle Mexico’s Fracking Future?While it’s estimated that the 6th largest shale reserves in the world may lie in Mexico where Texas’ Eagle Ford play meanders beneath the border to become the Burgos Basin, there may be one big snag in developing and exploiting Mexico’s untapped energy: lack of water. Fracking requires million gallons of water per well, and the country may simply not have enough supply to meet the demand, especially when, according to Mexico’s 2000 national census, only 55% of the population receives water on a regular basis for basic necessities and agriculture. (Read More)

June 10: FAA OK’s Flight of BP Drones for To Peruse Alaskan PipelineThe FAA has granted official permission for the first commercial use of drones to oil giant BP. A Puma AE drone, manufactured by AeroVironment, took its maiden voyage this past Sunday to monitor BP pipelines, roads, and equipment at Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who oversees the FAA, commented: “These surveys on Alaska’s North Slope are another important step toward broader commercial use of unmanned aircraft.” (Read More)

Watch the video here:

June 10: Anti-Risk Thinking Puts German Energy Independence on HoldAccording to a Bloomberg report, the latest casualty to suffer fall-out from the German government’s reluctance to invest in new technologies — from genetically modified crops, nuclear power and magnetic levitation trains — is fracking. Concerned captains of industry warn that such “green party” logic is self-defeating for a nation seeking energy independence from foreign sources. “If we habitually reject risk, then we’ll run our society into the grave,” said Karl-Ludwig Kley, chief executive officer of German-based Merck, the world’s oldest chemical and pharmaceutical firm. (Read More)

June 9: API Posits Fracking Energy Savings Empowers SchoolsA recent report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) suggests that one of the biggest beneficiaries of shale boom profits has been the public education sector. The API data suggests that fracking saved schools over $1.2 billion on combined gas and electricity bills over the course of the 2012-13 school year, which equates to enough funds to hire 14,246 full-time teachers. (Read More)

Having just read about the situation in Mexico with water being scarce and the propensity for earthquakes, I feel that Mexico may be in a pickle when it comes to the possibility of fracking. And honestly, the environmental risk and the risk for earthquakes concerns me the most. It it prudent to put so many people at risk for these types of natural disasters when they are somewhat likely to happen anyway? As for the water shortage, I agree that a pipeline from the ocean could likely solve that problem so I hope that’s given serious consideration. After all, losing cattle to starvation when it could have meant food and income for families is heartbreaking.